


Safe Beneath a Greater Shadow's Wings

by lucidscreamer



Series: 100 Yu-Gi-Oh Prompts [19]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Guardian Angels, Light Angst, Loneliness, Love, M/M, Past Character Death, Psychometry, Reunions, Romantic Soulmates, Sort Of, Supernatural Elements, Vampire Yugi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-15
Updated: 2019-06-15
Packaged: 2020-05-12 09:48:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19226665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucidscreamer/pseuds/lucidscreamer
Summary: Yugi met the familiar gaze of his one-time partner, his soul mate -- and now, possibly his salvation. Atem looked exactly as Yugi remembered from their parting: lean and golden, clad in fine linen and gold. If Yugi had become shadow, Atem was the sun. Even here, on this squalid rooftop, he seemed to shine."It's been a long time," Yugi said, wrenching his gaze away and looking out over the rundown buildings stretched out below and beyond their perch. "Things have changed."





	Safe Beneath a Greater Shadow's Wings

**Author's Note:**

> started: 5/30/2019  
> finished: 6/13/2019
> 
> prompt: 3. Isolation (100 YGO Themes)  
> prompt: 07. Mirror (10 Vampires)
> 
> Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! is the creation of Kazuki Takahashi. No ownership of the canon characters, settings, or events is claimed and none should be implied.
> 
> This one is a bit... weird. I really have no idea how to tag it, either. So, if I missed something let me know.

As a vampire, Yugi no longer slept. But dreams still found him -- waking dreams that haunted him with the ghosts of memory, with painful glimpses of the human life that he was now denied. They were dark dreams populated by spectres, memories filled mostly with pain -- his own and others -- and they ambushed him from seemingly innocent objects in his environment.

Every casual touch was a potential ambush. No longer could he move thoughtlessly through the world, heedless of obstacles. Now, he took care where he walked and tried not to brush against things or people (friends and strangers alike). Crowds were anethema to him. His unwanted psychometry meant he isolated himself even more than most of his kind. Feeding was sometimes a literal nightmare, but he spaced the intervals between sessions as far apart as he dared, often dancing on the edge of starvation.

And there were some places that, if given a choice, he avoided altogether. Places where the psychic imprint of years of pain and suffering were embedded into the very fabric of reality. Places of death and violence and grief. There were far too many places like that in every city, large of small, and Domino was no exception.

Tonight, he had no a choice.

Yugi stood on the rooftop of the abandoned hospital, a desultory wind tugging at his hair, and waited for death to find him. Again.

But when the voice spoke his name from the darkness, Yugi was startled to realize it wasn't the voice he'd been dreading. Instead, several decades after he'd last heard it, the pharaoh's deep voice saying his name felt like coming home.

" _Yugi_?"

Turning, Yugi met the familiar gaze of his one-time partner, his soul mate -- and now, possibly his salvation. Atem looked exactly as Yugi remembered from their parting: lean and golden, clad in fine linen and gold. If Yugi had become shadow, Atem was the sun. Even here, on this squalid rooftop, he seemed to shine.

Dark eyes lined thickly with kohl met Yugi's as the pharaoh frowned. Clearly, he had not expected to met Yugi here tonight. Well, they were even; Yugi had expected to die here, not be reunited with the other half of his soul. He smiled at the pharaoh's confusion.

" _Atem_ \--" Yugi's emotions welled up -- relief, curiosity, welcome. "You have no idea how glad I am to see you."

"And I you, partner." Atem's deep voice caressed him like velvet, wrapping Yugi in a kind of warmth he hadn't realized was missing until he found it again. It wasn't merely sensual; there was acceptance there, and affection.

Tears stung Yugi's eyes. How had he forgotten what this felt like? This unconditional-- But was it, still? When they'd last been together, Yugi had been an ordinary teenager. Human. Would Atem still care for him, still--

"It's been a long time," Yugi said, wrenching his gaze away and looking out over the rundown buildings stretched out below and beyond their perch. "Things have changed."

"More than I was led to believe, yes." Atem didn't sound surprised. His gilded sandals scuffed against the concrete surface of the roof as he moved closer, only stopping when he was near enough that Yugi could feel the warmth of him all down his back. "What has happened to you, Yugi?"

There was none of the condemnation Yugi had dreaded in that question, just concern and caring. He inhaled sharply, refusing to call it an aborted sob. And then Atem's arms were around him, pulling him back against a firm chest. Yugi tensed, expecting to be overwhelmed by images -- perhaps of Atem's death or the ritual to seal the darkness which had proceded it. But... He felt nothing more than the comfort of the embrace, the safety he'd come to associate with his 'other self', and the heat of Atem's living body against the cool flesh of his own.

It was the first time Yugi had been held without the pain of "dreams" since his Turn. He could hold back his tears no longer; they stained his cheeks red as they trickled down his face.

"Whatever it is," Atem said, leaning in and tightening his embrace so that his voice was a rumble that Yugi not only heard but _felt_ , all the way down to his toes. "We will face it together."

"Do you mean it?" Yugi hardly dared to hope. He turned slowly, not wanting to break Atem's hold on him, and looked into his brighter reflection's eyes. He saw there what he had always seen when Atem looked at him: love.

"Always."

　

o0o

　

They say that death comes on silent wings. But it when it came for Yugi, it found another already there, one whose falcon wings cast a sheltering shadow while still blazing with all the power of a desert sun.

 


End file.
